Surgical assistant Sue Byrne, left, adjusts the position for a patient on the 3D imaging at Design Dental in King of Prussia. The machine creates a digital, three-dimensional image of a patients mouth for doctors to use in their analyses. Photo by Gene Walsh / Times Herald Staff

UPPER MERION — Cliff Gratz and his partners at By Design Dental Implant Center want to give their patients plenty to grin about even before their smile makeovers put gleams on their faces.

The once novel dental implant, a device which resembles a real tooth and is anchored to the jaw, has been helping the toothless say goodbye to their dentures for years.

But By Design is creating a new buzz on the concept by opening the doors to a quicker, innovative process that can give patients permanent new teeth in just one day.

“It’s a team approach, with everyone under one roof here,” said Gratz, sitting by a window in his office in The Atrium building that ushered sunlight and an abundant view of King of Prussia into the room.

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Gratz, who manages the business side of things, had been a dental consultant for Nobel Biocare, working regularly with his future partners, oral surgeon Robert Mogyoros and lab owner Rand Jaslow, when the three men realized they could join forces and streamline the tedious implant process.

“The delivery system for implants was so poor,” Gratz said. “As a consultant, I was the glue, lining up all the components, coordinating with all the different offices, and it was an extremely inefficient way of doing it. With the conventional system, somebody could be spending $50,000 and more than a year going from one office to another. Here in this facility we have cut the cost in half and make implants very affordable. You come in and we get your treatment plan going on a preliminary day. We all get together and come up with a very comprehensive plan, using our state-of-the-art technology, and that next visit when you come back is the day of the procedure.”

The cutting-edge method used at By Design originated with Nobel Biocare and is called All-On-Four technology (so named because everything is anchored to four implants.)

From a three-dimensional surgical image, computer-assisted design and manufacturing technology craft a precise surgical strategy for a patient.

“Using materials that are less expensive but more durable, we’re using less implants that will still span 12 teeth,” Gratz explained. “When you put all these guys together — myself, the oral surgeon, the prosthodontist, the periodontist — at the end of the day you’re walking out of here with what we call an interim fixed prothesis, which are temporary teeth that are screwed into place.”

In three or four months the patient returns for a follow-up visit once the implant has fused itself to the bone.

All of this information is readily available to would-be patients at regular educational seminars, with the next ones scheduled for Jan. 9 and 23.

“We give these half-hour presentations and you get to meet everybody involved,” Gratz noted. “After the seminar you get a quick free scan and evaluation. I feel that we help people, even if they don’t do treatment with us, because we will find instances where some folks have neglected their dentistry and have infection and we’ll tell them they need to do something about it, no matter where they go. It feels good to be actively helping the community even if they’re not doing anything with us.”

“In this day and age somebody would never be able to tell them apart,” he said.

Though a recent client who came in requesting a set of flashing pearly whites like that of Food Network star Paula Deen might have balked at the idea, very often the By Design advisers will create slight toothy imperfections to avoid a “picket fence” look.

“Whatever you request, we will accommodate, even if it may not be what our trained eyes would have done,” Gratz said. Financing is available through three By Design affiliates, with one of them currently offering 24 months at no interest.

While dentistry and fun are generally mutually exclusive concepts, in King of Prussia they don’t necessarily have to be, Gratz allowed.

In fact, the town is the perfect spot for what he calls ‘destination dentistry.’

“There’s so much to do in King of Prussia. There are a ton of arteries that intersect here and people are willing to drive to get beautiful new permanent teeth in one day and do it all in one place, so it’s worth the trip,” said Gratz, a King of Prussia native. “We’re even prepared to accept people who are traveling by plane. We pick them up at the airport and get them checked in at the Hyatt House next door. Then they come in for an examination and spend the rest of the day shopping at the world-renowned mall across the street or going to the casino that’s five minutes away. We love being here in King of Prussia.”